Petroplex International v. St. James Parish
Petroplex International v. St. James Parish
Opinion of the Court
ORDER AND REASONS
Before the Court is Defendants’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on the Constitutionality of St. Jamls Parish Ordinance 14-03 (Doc. 60). For, the following reasons the Motion is GRANTED IN PART.
BACKGROUND
The facts of this case have been outlined at length in the Court’s earlier Order and Reasons. The Court will, therefore, only review the facts relevant to the instant motion. In 2007, Plaintiffs
In 2013, as Plaintiffs were nearing the end, of the planning process, the Parish adopted a parish-wide Master Land Use Plan (the “Land Use Ordinance”), under which the tank farm was not a permissible use of the property. Plaintiffs’ Complaint mounts a challenge to, inter alia, the validity of the Land Use Ordinance under both state and federal-law.
LEGAL STANDARD
Summary judgment is appropriate “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.”
In determining whether the movant is entitled to summary judgment, the Court views facts in the light most favorable -to the non-movant and draws all reasonable inferences in his favor.
LAW AND ANALYSIS
This Motion seeks dismissal of Plaintiffs’ claims attacking the validity of the Land Use Ordinance. Initially, the Court will address the claims arising under federal law, as they are unquestionably within its jurisdiction. The Court will then address its jurisdiction to entertain the state law claims.
I. Federal Claims
Plaintiffs’ Complaint mounts two constitutional challenges to the Land Use Ordinance. First, they argue in Count 2 of the Complaint that the Land Use Ordinance is unconstitutionally vague in violation of the Federal Constitution. Second, they assert in Count 3 that the Land Use Ordinance is arbitrary and capricious, thereby asserting a violation of substantive due process. The Court will address these claims in turn.
As a preliminary matter, the Court notes that, in {making their constitutional arguments, Plaintiffs cite the Court to various Louisiana state court cases. These citations, however, ignore the standard of review applicable to federal constitutional challenges of land use plans. Federal review of land use decisions is “quite different from the review to which they may be subjected in state court.”
A. Vagueness Claims
Plaintiffs assert that the Land Use Ordinance' is unconstitutionally vague in violation of the Federal Constitution. Specifically, Plaintiffs argue that the maps adopted lack sufficiently detailed boundaries and that the Land Use Ordinance provides insufficient standards to guide
Under federal law, “[a] civil statute that is not concerned with the First Amendment is only unconstitutionally vague if it is so vague and indefinite as really to be no rule at all or if it is substantially incomprehensible.”
Plaintiffs concede that federal courts rarely invalidate zoning ordinances for vagueness and have cited to only one district court case where a federal court did so.
B. “Arbitrary and Capricious” Substantive Due Process Challenges
In Count 3 of the Complaint, Plaintiffs assert that the Land Use Ordinance is arbitrary and capricious in violation of federal substantive due process protections. Plaintiffs argue that the ordinance is arbitrary and capricious because it relies on a master plan to implement a parish-wide zoning ordinance. Plaintiffs further argue that the designation of large swaths of the Parish’s downriver land for either “Residential Growth” or “Agriculture” is unreasonable and without justification.
Before they can be declared unconstitutional, however, zoning ordinances must be clearly arbitrary and unreasonable and have no substantial relation to public health, safety, morals, or general welfare.
The Land Use Ordinance provides that it was enacted to guide the future development of St. James Parish.
II. Jurisdiction to Entertain State Law Claims
Having determined that Plaintiffs federal law challenges to the Land Use Ordinance fail, the Court must turn to the issue of its jurisdiction to entertain those challenges grounded in state law. Plaintiffs urge the Court to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over these state law claims, while Defendants argue that federal court review of state land use statutes is limited to claims cognizable as federal constitutional challenges.
Defendants point the Court to the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Shelton v. City of College Station. There, the court stated
We have long insisted that review of municipal zoning is within the domain of the states, the business of their own legislatures, agencies, and judiciaries, and should seldom be the concern of federal courts. A person disappointed with a zoning decision ordinarily can interest the federal courts only in a substantial claim that the state has deprived him of a property right without due process of law. In the absence of invidious discrimination, suspect classifying criteria, or infringement of fundamental interests, our review of these quasi-legislative decisions is confined to whether the decisions were “arbitrary and capricious.”33
This pronouncement would seem to facially bar the Court from consideration of Plaintiffs’ state law claims. That ease was, however, decided prior to the codification of the concept of supplemental jurisdiction. It involves no direct discussion of whether the Court may exercise supplemental jurisdiction over a state law challenges to land use plans that are the subject of federal challenges properly before it under federal question jurisdiction. Plaintiffs cite the Court to City of Chicago v. College of Surgeons in support of the proposition that the Court may exercise supplemental jurisdiction over this claim;
In determining whether to relinquish jurisdiction over state law claims, the Court must look to both the statutory
The factors weigh in favor of the Court declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction. First and foremost, the remaining claims challenging the propriety of. the Land Use Ordinance involve .complex issues of state land use law. and interpretation of the Louisiana Constitution on which there .is not clear guidance from the Louisiana Supreme Court. Matters such as land use are of local concern and are best left to the province of the states to decide.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Defendants’ Motion is GRANTED IN PART. Plaintiffs’ federal constitutional claims challenging the validity of the Land Use Ordinance are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE, and Plaintiffs’ state law challenges to the ordinance are DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.
. There are three Plaintiffs in this litigation: Mainline Energy Partners No. 2, LLC (‘'Mainline”): Homeplace Ventures No. 2, LLC ("Homeplace”); and Petroplex International, LLC ("Petroplex”). Mainline and Homeplace are the sole members of Petroplex.
. Specifically, Count 1 of the Complaint avers that the Land Use ordinance lacks sufficient standards under the Louisiana Constitution, Count 2 argues that it is unconstitutionally vague in violation of state and federal constitutional protections,. Count 3 argues that the ordinance is arbitrary and capricious in violation of federal substantive due process protections, and Count 4 avers that it is an unreasonable exercise of the police power provision of the Louisiana constitution.
. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c) (2012).
. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).
. Coleman v. Houston Indep. Sch. Dist., 113 F.3d 528 (5th Cir. 1997).
. Engstrom v. First Nat'l Bank of Eagle Lake, 47 F.3d 1459, 1462 (5th Cir. 1995).
. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).
. Johnson v. Deep E. Tex. Reg. Narcotics Trafficking Task Force, 379 F.3d 293, 301 (5th Cir. 2004) (internal citations omitted).
. Badon v. R J R Nabisco, Inc., 224 F.3d 382, 394 (5thCir. 2000) (quoting Little v. Liquid Air Corp., 37 F.3d 1069, 1075 (5th Cir. 1994)).
. Boudreaux v. Banctec, Inc., 366 F.Supp.2d 425, 430 (E.D.La. 2005).
. Shelton v. City of College Station, 780 F.2d 475, 482-83 (5th Cir. 1986).
. See, e.g. Jackson Court Condominiums Inc. v. City of New Orleans, 665 F.Supp. 1235, 1241 (E.D.La. 1987); Brian B. Brown Const. Co v. St. Tammany Parish, 17 F.Supp.2d 586, 589 (E.D.La. 1998).
. FM Properties Operating Co. v. City of Austin, 93 F.3d 167, 174 (5th Cir. 1996) (quoting Stern v. Tarrant County Hosp. Dist., 778 F.2d 1052, 1056 (5th Cir. 1985).
. Chavez v. Hous. Auth. of City of El Paso, 973 F.2d 1245, 1249 (5th Cir. 1992).
. Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 102 S.Ct. 1186, 71 L.Ed.2d 362 (1982). See also Duplantis v. Bonvillain, 675 F.Supp. 331 (E.D.La. 1987).
. Stansberry v. Holmes, 613 F.2d 1285, 1289 (5th Cir. 1980).
. Village of Hoffman Estates, 455 U.S. at 495, 102 S.Ct. 1186.
. Everett v. City of Tallahassee, 840 F.Supp. 1528, 1546 (N.D.Fla. 1992). In the other case cited by Plaintiffs in support of their argument that the court should strike down the law for vagueness turned on qualified immunity, and therefore a final determination as to the vagueness of the statute was not made. Hyatt v. Town of Lake Lure, 225 F.Supp.2d 647, 663 (W.D.N.C. 2002).
. Everett, 840 F.Supp. at 1546.
. Land Use Ordinance, Doc. 60-1 at 3.
. Land Use Ordinance, Doc. 60-1 at 2.
. Land Use Ordinance, Doc. 60-1 at 2.
. See Village of Hoffman Estates, 455 U.S. at 495, 102 S.Ct 1186.
. Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 47 S.Ct. 114, 71 L.Ed. 303 (1926). See also Shelton, 780 F.2d at 480.
. Shelton, 780 F.2d at 480.
. Stansberry v. Holmes, 613 F.2d 1285, 1289 (5th Cir. 1980) (internal quotation marks omitted).
. Shelton, 780 F.2d at 476.
. Texas Manufactured Hous. Ass’n, Inc. v. City of Nederland, 101 F.3d 1095, 1106 (5th Cir. 1996).
. Land Use Ordinance, Doc. 60-1 at 1.
. Wood Marine Service, Inc. v. City of Harahan, 858 F.2d 1061, 1066 (5th Cir. 1988) (citing Shelton, 780 F.2d at 479).
. Land Use Ordinance, Doc. 60-1 at 1.
. See FM Properties Operating Co., 93 F.3d at 174.
. Shelton, 780 F.2d at 477.
. 522 U.S. 156, 118 S.Ct. 523, 139 L.Ed.2d 525 (1997).
. Id.
. Id.
. Enochs v. Lampasas County, 641 F.3d 155, 158 (5th Cir. 2011).
. 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c).
. See Shelton, 780 F.2d at 477.
. See, e.g., Clark v. City of Gig Harbor, No. C09-5099 FDB, 2009 WL 1046032, at *2 (W.D.Wash. Apr. 20, 2009) (remanding state law land use challenges and noting that local zoning and land use disputes are an area upon which federal courts ought not intrude); Camp v. City of Charlevoix, No. 1:07-CV-980, 2008 WL 4185954, at *8 (W.D.Mich. Sept. 8, 2008) (declining supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims where the state court would be more familiar with state zoning and land use law): McKinnie v. Estate of Adrian, No. CIV. 07-5082-KES, 2008 WL 4425880, at *7 (D.S.D. Sept. 24, 2008) (declining supplemental jurisdiction "[bjecause the state courts are in a much better position to decide issues related to local land use decisions); Trustees of Marion Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses v. City of Marion, 638 F.Supp.2d 962, 980 (S.D.Ill. 2007) (declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over remaining state law land use claims after similar federal claims were dismissed).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- PETROPLEX INTERNATIONAL v. ST. JAMES PARISH
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published